New Beginnings - part 2
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
* January 28 [Raquel PoV]Having to juggle school, time with the Team, and fighting crime in Dakota had sorta sucked for the first few weeks, but after it turned out that Team activities could include homework help – Robin was a math whiz, Superboy had history facts out the wazoo, Kid Flash was a life saver in Chem 1, and it felt so awesome that I could edit their English essays in exchange – things got more manageable.
Plus, I was actually being useful. More than as just another teammate, my (belt's) powers and my awesome skills were contributing.
Powers-wise, the belt let me fly, but even better was how the kinetic dampener let me go blow-for-blow with Superboy. Yeah, I still wore body padding and stuff to be safe, but my belt handled all the important punishment from his fists, which was awesome.
Seriously, who else could say they got to judo throw a Kryptonian? Yeah, he was half-human apparently, and he was letting me practice because Black Canary was teaching me some martial arts basics, but it was still totally awesome.
"That's it for our training session today," Black Canary announced after a cool down. "I'll see you all Sunday afternoon."
"Remember that tomorrow's a free day, but we're also having the former Huntress come in to talk about the League of Shadows," Robin added. "So show up, or Artemis will shoot an arrow at you."
"Watch it, birdbrain," the blonde in question rallied back. She turned to the rest of us. "I'm hitting the showers: date tonight."
"Hot date tonight," Kid Flash chimed in.
"Me and M'gann too," Superboy said.
[I'm going to stick around and run through a few more exercises before I unwind a little,] Jericho declared.
I saw my opportunity. "I'm still single, but tonight I'm staying in instead of partying. Think you could pick up where your mentor left off in teaching me some stuff?" I tried not to sound skanky or bat my eyelashes as I said it – I wasn't trying to flirt with him, after all.
Jericho was totally cute, and there was something about that sensitive artist's soul, but I wanted to try getting Aqualad's attention for a little longer before I went after anyone else. Beside, Jericho was still skinny, and I like a guy with more muscle.
[If you don't mind me not talking to you much,] he replied.
I shrugged. "Hey, I'll even write back and forth on a pad instead if it'll help you feel better." 'I really hope he doesn't take that wrong.'
He smiled. [No need for that. What do you want to work on first?]
"How about some sparring, and you can tell me where my weak spots are." ''Cause no doubt I have a lot of them.'
We squared off in the ring as the others filed out, until it was just us and Sphere-the-alien-Super-Cycle.
I started off with a couple jabs just to warm up, and then I tried a roundhouse kick that got dodged real easy-like.
"What, don't tell me you're afraid to hit a girl?" I teased as he stayed on the defensive.
Jericho raised one eyebrow and put his fists down, almost seeming to droop. I immediately felt like an ass.
"Hey, I'm sorry, I forgot about the talk-,"
*WHUMP*
I blinked up at the lights on the ceiling as I waited for the room to stop spinning. Above me, a hologram flashed Rocket: Fail.
I sat up, still dazed, and caught Jericho clicking his tongue at me. He waved a piece of paper in my face, the smug blond pretty-boy.
Lesson 1: Don't let your guard down if the other guy is still fighting. Bad guys play possum sometimes.
"Wow," I muttered, still not quite standing up yet. "Geez, Jericho. You're a lot snarkier than I gave you credit for."
He started scribbling again. It's my pretty face. People always think I'm so innocent. BTW, my friends call me Joey. He waited for me to read it, and scribbled another line: I think I can say we're friends, right?
I grinned in relief, nodded, and let him help me up.
Then I tried to sweep him like Canary showed me, only to get dumped on my ass again.
"Okaaay," I groaned, "match is over and I say you win." He helped me up again. He reached for his pad, but I got my head together faster. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. The friends thing," I added. "We don't spend a lot of time together so far, so…."
He nodded cheerfully, moved his hands in sign language, and grabbed his pad again. I waited for him to finish.
Team bonding and getting to know each other? I'm in. It was really intimidating being with the others at first, you know?
"I know. I tried to play tough girl, and a fat lot of good that did me," I reflected. 'Though, I was one of the ones okay after our fight with the League… I guess I have less to have nightmares about, unlike the others.' "Everyone is really cool, though. You included."
Thanks. I joined when Renka was still in a coma to start with. They were really good about me not being her half-assed replacement. Artemis helped out a lot with coming to terms with my father and stuff. Sibling issues, too.
'Sibling issues?' "Sibling issues? I remember her sister is that Shadows chick. Cheshire?"
I have a brother. Grant talks shit about maybe following in Dad's footsteps. Mom isn't happy about it. I'm torn between staying more at the Mountain to stay away from the fighting, or being there to keep it from getting worse.
I winced. "My advice? If it's bad enough you want to run, then it's not your job to fix anything. If you need help, we're here, too."
Thanks, he wrote. We expect new teammates in a few weeks, did you hear?
I nodded. "Some of Aqualad's friends from Atlantis, and two of Miss Martian and Superboy's classmates. Though, like, one is a civilian? I was a bit busy, so we weren't around much at the same time when they visited. What are they like?"
Karen has sass. I like her. I think you will too. She's the one who actually wants to be a crime fighter, so M'gann is getting her some training and supervision so she doesn't get herself killed kicking gangsters' butts. No powers.
Wendy is nice, and a bit uncertain about all of this. I think she's mostly swept along by Karen. I haven't heard of her having powers, but I overheard Black Canary and Wonder Woman talking about something in her file, so it sounds like I'll have another member of the Kids of Criminals club pretty soon. I expect she'll hang back at the Mountain with Ferris for Mission Control.
Artemis also hinted about someone she knows in Gotham, but we probably won't meet her until after March is done, she said.
I've been working on a Survival Guide for new teammates. Advice and stuff, but I'm trying to make it funny. Read it over for me?
I grinned. "I'd love to."
We moved over to the sitting room and he went to print off a few pages.
I read it over with a chuckle.
So, You've Decided to Join the Team
"I like the title," was my first response. "Huh. Multiple sub-lists? General and personal behavior? Maybe better names," I advised.
I read some more.
Rules for personal behavior:
In addition to general things about being on the Team, a few of the members might have their personal quirks. To stay safe and unperforated, you should consider these pieces of advice at all times when interacting with them:
- Robin is a total troll. Recruit him to help with any pranks or he will sabotage them for fun.
- Don't mess with his belt, his mask, or his sunglasses. Anything else is fair game, but he will get even with you.
- If you need a break, don't be afraid to ask Aqualad. If you notice that he needs a break, don't hesitate to tell him that you need a break, because he is in denial about his own limits.
- Kid Flash eats a lot, and if you don't explicitly label any food in the fridge it will be gone in a day or two. Also, slipping laxatives into food as a prank didn't work on him the one time I tried it.
- If he's flirting with you and you feel uncomfortable, just say, "I feel uncomfortable." He WILL NOT get anything less subtle than that, and Artemis has proven entirely willing to let him troll people on her behalf.
- Superboy watches static on the television. If you need to tape anything, tell Robin and he can set up a program to do it without you monopolizing the TV, because Superboy has eternal dibs on it. Watching it with him is a good way to bond.
- If Miss Martian is cooking, ask her how many times she's tried the recipe. Any attempt after the third is probably safe. Everything after the fifth attempt has proven to be pretty good.
- The same way Superboy has dibs on the TV, Miss M has dibs on kitchen use. She's nice about sharing and letting other people try out ingredients, but it is HER DOMAIN, and trespassing gets you dish duty or worse.
- If Ferris says she doesn't want to talk about it, drop it. If you don't want to discuss something, say so, and she'll drop it.
- Her room is off-limits without express permission. Even if the door is open, don't go in unless she's said so. Even if she isn't in there. Don't close the door either. Especially don't mess with her books. Other stuff is okay.
- Always treat Artemis as though she is pointing an arrow in your general direction. If she's in a good mood, you may assume that the arrow is pointing at a guy trying to sneak up behind you. If she's in a bad mood, treat her like she's aiming at your face, and don't do anything you wouldn't do if she had an actual arrow pointed in your direction.
- Zatanna is a total card shark.
I don't actually believe there's anything special about them or whatever, but I think it's hilarious that I can make Kaldur face-palm when I bring it up, so I want to turn this thing into a meme for the Team, you know?
I laughed. "Okay, I get that. I'm so willing to help you out as long as it doesn't get too crazy. If I think of any ideas, I'll let you know."
He shot me a thumbs-up in lieu of writing anything.
"Hey," I said, "I didn't want to ask earlier 'cause I felt like the only one who didn't know, but where's Ferris today? I haven't seen her do much atTeam training outside of taking notes and some arm exercises Robin taught her, but she usually tries to show up."
She went down to Atlantis a few days ago. She's come back using the Zeta 1 or 2 times since, like to take her turn making dinner, and I'm not sure if she sleeps here or there, but mostly she's down in Atlantis talking to them about whatever messed up magic thing she revealed to Savage while she was under control. I don't know much about it, but it really has her worried.
"I guessed." I was gonna say something else, but Joey had a brain blast and started scribbling again, so I waited.
Our supplies includes some re-breathers and depth protection stuff. We have Justice League ID and they know us. Want to go visit?
That perked me right up. "Sweet! I really loved looking around while we were down there for a few hours, yeah. Tomorrow's a free day, right? Wasn't there one time in the old mission files where they stayed a few nights down there? And if we can check out any magic weapons or stuff, I'd really love to get my hands on those things. It's be great for us- eh, what're we called?" 'There's some made up term for it…?'
I'm a meta-human. You use tech, like the Green Lanterns. That puts you at a 2 on the Scale of Abilities.
"Ain't two-," 'Whoops, gotta watch that.' "-out of five a little high?" I asked.
We were already walking down to the supply stores by then, but Joey took a detour to go print something out again. He met me up a minute later and I read the newly revised list of 'how much you rely on a special ability' while he got our stuff together.
Renka's Scale of Superpower Reliance (0-9) . . . [edited by Kid Flash]
0 = Normal Human abilities, simple and replicable tools, intermediate to advanced training—Green Arrow, Artemis, etc.
1 = Baseline Human abilities, advanced tools and weapons, abnormal training—Batman, Robin, etc.
2 = Baseline Human with xeno tech or mystic items—Green Lanterns, Rocket, Atom, etc.
3 = Human capable of exceeding limitations temporarily or using a specific power—Hourman, Black Canary, Jericho
4 = Human altered to possess an enhanced ability, or an alien at human baseline + a power or tech—Kid Flash, Hawkwoman, etc.
5 = Alien with a moderately above human baseline, or a human with inherent skills/abilities beyond baseline—Zatanna, Aquaman
6 = Abhuman with greatly above human baseline abilities but some human skills, human with encompassing powers—Flash, Icon
7 = Abhuman with encompassing powers & some human level skills, or nearly ascended human—Superman, Plastic Man, etc.
8 = Abhuman or altered human with powers and some training to apply them—Wonder Woman, Miss Martian, etc.
9 = Abhuman entirely reliant on and inherently bound to powers and source—Red Tornado, Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate
"…Some of these hit me as stretching it, y'know?" I told Joey. He nodded. "By the way, what's an abhuman?" He grabbed the paper.
She uses it for people who are people even though they aren't humans. Robots like Red Tornado, aliens like M'gann, magic beings like Fate. She said "inhuman" was too close to inhumane=monstrous, and non-human sounded wrong too. She and Robin like word games.
"I noticed that," I said, trying to block out how I'd gotten self-conscious about my accent a few days after starting up with everyone. "Makes me almost wince when they butcher the English language. Still, they get some laughs out of it. …How do we wear this?"
Jericho showed me how to do the gear up properly, I set my belt's inertia field for the 'resist crushing depths' trick I'd figured out only two weeks ago as part of training and experiments the Team had put me through, and we headed for the Zeta Tubes.
<Recognized: Rocket, B11. >
<Recognized: Jericho, B10. >
'Guess they still have the room drained because of- Yeah, there it is.' The first time we'd come down here had required Aqualad to clear all the water out for us Team members who still needed to breathe. Now they'd kept the room with the Zeta Tube dry – 'Dry under the ocean, that's still impressive as anything when I think about it.' – because we were coming and going so often.
It was especially because Ferris was coming and going so often; her wheelchair was waiting empty right by the border of the water.
"Here goes-," Joey jumped in ahead of me, smirking wickedly. "-nothing," I finished drably, clicked the re-breather, and followed him in. 'Well, everything seems to be all well and good. Great. I wish the water wasn't so cold, but I can handle that.'
We swam, we ran into guards, we showed our stuff and one recognized us, we got escorted around somewhere….
We got to wait a few minutes until the seal of secrecy was broken on whatever they were doing and half-a-dozen Atlantean people streamed out and away, some giving respectful nods to us.
The respect part felt really good, I'll admit. Working with Icon to save and inspire had started it off, but being with the League? Coming down here to Atlantis, where skin color got almost ignored as a race issue and the king was an admired superhero?
It felt good.
"Rocket, Jericho," Ferris greeted, and that was the thing that- "Is everything well?"
"You're outta your wheelchair!" I babbled, remember that I'd seen it earlier and of course she wasn't in it.
Her legs still didn't move much, but she was floating in the water fine and she swayed over with only her arms doing much to move.
It looked a little silly to see her paddling like that, but she was moving under her own power and I did. Not. Laugh.
"Yes. It's one reason why I'm spending more time down here," Ferris agreed, and she sounded odd, too. "In case you were confused, you're currently under the effects of some spells the Queen Mera cast for our convenience, including translation and easier speaking."
"Oh. Yeah, I probably shoulda- should've wondered about that." I glanced to Joey, but I realized he wasn't in a position to say anything anyway and was just staring at Queen Mera, so, 'Great, I'd better explain it.' "There's no big problem or anything, we just wanted to come down and look around. If that's okay, uh, your majesty," I added quickly.
[That's quite alright, young Rocket. You and your Team are guests of the Crown, and we are indebted to you.]
[They've got spells to do telepathy here,] Joey added, [but Ferris still can't use them safely, so if you could talk to her I have a few things to ask the queen about? You want me to ask anything for you?]
[Uh, just some magic weapons and gear. Maybe tourist spots, if it doesn't sound too weird to ask her.]
[Will do.]
We chatted. It was a little weird.
Part of the way through I had to wonder if I was keeping Ferris busy, or being kept busy.
Then we were going through a few hallways—still in the water, and I could see Ferris just loved that she could swim around like that—until Ferris and Jericho broke off with a guard to check on or go get something, and I wound up alone in a room with a queen.
It easily could've been scary. It wasn't.
It was cool, since she was just totally chill about everything, inviting me to take a seat and give an opinion.
Her being pregnant and totally swelled up – not that I would ever say anything about it – helped out, too.
I looked the room over.
"Is this the nursery?" I realized.
"It is indeed. Were you aware that my husband was raised in the surface world?" she asked.
I shook my head. "Nope. I'm not sure if it's in press releases or whatever, but I don't know much about anyone's identities."
"A healthy respect for privacy is a becoming trait in this age," she complimented, and I squirmed.
'Wonder what she'd have to say if she knew I met Arnus by breaking into his house to burglarize it? …Wait, she's friends with Ferris, and that girl's pretty open about the nasty stuff in her past; Queen Mera might not care.'
"It's a learned respect," I admitted. "I'm… not sure how much you know about me and Icon?" Queen Mera just shook her head. "Right. Well, we actually met 'cause… because I was kind of breaking intohisplacetorobhim," I muttered. She blinked.
"I see. Well, you clearly have turned your life around admirably, to be catching criminals now instead of committing crimes," she said, and Lord I actually felt like she meant it. I practically glowed. "It's rare to find that sort of moral determination at your age."
"Aw, thanks," I said, and I really didn't want to argue, I just… "Ah don't think it's as rare as you think, it's just that a bunch of kids never really get the chance to try. Have you ever heard the phrase, 'had to go to jail to become a criminal'?"
"I had not, but I believe I surmise its meaning. Speaking as someone who has decided sentence lengths and heard appeals for clemency," she said soberly, "it is a very difficult issue."
I wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"Yeah," I said, and when it didn't sound good enough I added, "I'm learning that now… from… the other side of things."
I wasn't really sure if I believed it, but it seemed like the queen did.
"I pray you may be painlessly enlightened," she offered. "Still, I did not wish to speak to you only about grim things. I have a… I hope you will not think it a silly question, but there are very few people I could ask about it. I had not thought to raise it when your Team was here, given the circumstances, and while Ferris is from the surface, she is not an American, and it is a cultural question. May I?"
"Oh. Sure, go ahead," I agreed, wondering what the heck it could be.
"I wish to know about surface-world customs involving babies," she said in all seriousness.
I almost laughed.
Then I had to parse it, and my mind sort of turned it into an uncertain "Ah?"
Queen Mera sighed, which was really weird to think about when I remembered we were underwater.
"My husband," she reminded me, "was raised in the surface world. For the most part, he has adapted to Atlantis and made it his home, but on occasion there are still moments when he can surprise me, or the reverse. Also, I feel… quite fond of the surface and its people now, and I do not want him to have to give up the culture and rituals that made him who he is today. We still celebrate Valentines Day, the two of us, and Christmas, and a few other things. I wish to know about surface rituals so that I may pleasantly surprise him."
"Okay… Um, I know that there are traditional baby showers, where people buy stuff for the mom and dad and the baby to be," I started, thinking back to one I had attended a year ago, "but a big part of that is taking a load off by buying expensive things so the parents won't have to. So, I guess you don't really need that. Christenings? I mean, they're mostly Christian, but name days?"
"Name days?" she asked seriously.
'Right, there was some history book about this… I remember two versions, ugh.' "So, Christenings are where the baby got baptized, for church, but they were… also… where people announced the kid's name? A lot of kids died, uh, crib deaths… Is it bad luck to talk about this?"
"No, I do not believe so. Facing a fear is, in my view, the best way to chase it away from reality," she said seriously. "Please, go on."
"Right, okay. For Christenings it was when they announced the baby's name, and then non-Christian people did it too. A lot of the time, the didn't formally name a baby until the first birthday, because they didn't want to get attached." An odd little piece of law someone had mentioned to me once popped up in my head. "Actually, now that I think of it, usually if you want to change your name or your kid's name you need to go to a judge and stuff, but you can do it without a problem before the kid's a year old. Not sure if that's the same…."
We talked about that stuff some more, we talked about baby showers (including whether they were called showers because of a rain of presents, because Atlantis barely had words for that), we talked about cute onesies and caps with pom-poms and diaper types….
I sort of wished I'd done more babysitting, but I knew enough to get by and I didn't really make much of anything up.
Queen Mera seemed pretty happy by the time Joey and Ferris got back with a pack of stuff, at any rate.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
* January 29 [Overview]
The entire Team was gathered together as Paula Crock rolled into the center of the half-circle. Wally and Artemis stepped up beside her to help her set up the visuals, and then stepped back with a little wave for luck. Paula smiled, nodded, coughed, and then she began.
"The first thing to know about the League of Shadows," she started, pulling up pictures of various operatives and newspaper headlines, "is that the League is not a monolithic entity, nor is it even entirely as devoted to Ra's al Ghul as he proclaims.
"The current League of Shadows can be broken up into three large sub-factions at first glance: the Shadows, the Assassins, and the DEMON organization; the DEMON organization is the one most closely tied to Ra's al Ghul, as he founded it some few centuries ago. His very name is a title—Ra's al Ghul can translate as 'the Head of the Demon,'—and he developed the DEMON organization to be the fangs that protect the head of the demon. The initiates he brings with him as his personal guards are often DEMON members specifically, rather than Shadows.
"Many DEMON members have been trained since birth to obey Ra's. He has an indeterminate number of small towns, compounds, and villages spread throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the Himalayas where the villagers are raised to revere him as their god, and have been raised to do so for centuries. This branch of the League of Shadows contains the most fanatical of his followers, but they may be either less skilled or less savvy about the modern world, depending on the direction of each one's training.
"The branch we may refer to as the League of Assassins, conversely, is the least loyal to Ra's al Ghul. This sub-group acts less like a cult and more like… You might call it a certification organization for assassins and mercenaries. It is the main way new and willing members join from outside, such as myself and Sportsmaster. They provide training, equipment, some surgical intervention-," She pulled up a picture of Hook. "-and connections to clients. Most of the more prominent mercenaries and assassins, such as Sportsmaster and Deadshot, have spent time with this faction and through them been either certified for clients, or joined the Shadows as a later step.
"As for the Shadows themselves, you could say that they are everything else. There are dozens of smaller pockets of likeminded agents spaced out in various places across the world, and many, many more victims of blackmail and coercion who know that they are involved in something illicit, but could not name the League of Shadows as responsible officially…."
Blink twice if you're chained to your writing desk.
